Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Israel is placing more and more Palestinian children in solitary confinement as part of the interrogation process, a new study reveals. The children are often blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived. Neither they nor parents know the reasons for arrest.

“Solitary confinement for detained Palestinian children was used in 21.4 percent of cases in 2013,” says the report released by Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI-Palestine), a national section of the international non-governmental child rights organization and movement. The numbers have shown a 2-percent rise since 2012.

The organization took at least 98 sworn affidavits from Palestinian children between the ages of 12 to 17 in 2013 and submitted the information to UN bodies.

“The average number of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention at the end of each month during 2013 was 199,” says the organization which took the data from the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and from Israeli army temporary detention facilities, including Petah Tikva detention center, Kishon detention center and Shikma prison in Ashkelon which lead the interrogations.

According to the report, detained children spent an average of 10 days of isolation, with the longest period being 28 days. It also adds that about 32 children between 12 and 15 years old were arrested at the end of each month in 2013. The highest number of detained teens of this age was in May, at 48. more